Home› Main Category› Hunting
Boy shot his first deer of the season!!!
Rancher friend needed a few deer culled this evening to give to some ranch hands. He shot one early this afternoon and asked if my boy could come out and shoot one as well. Well........of COURSE!!!
We came out and zeroed some 95gr SST handloads I had as I wanted to use them up and test their terminal performance. Got them zeroed and headed out.
Poured out the corn along the ranch road past a feeder and set up next to an old rock wall with the Spec-Rest and .243 Winchester in a new MagPul Stock I had.
Of course, Precious (the tame doe raised from a fawn) had to come and check us out. preventing us from shooting the doe we were after for about 5 minutes until she moved out of the way.
Once she moved, I coached my boy through which deer we were after. Using a cow pie as a reference, I got him on the right one and he did a great job of tracking her as she moved through the mass of other deer. I told him to get on her and let me know when he was ready. He did and I watcher=d her walk around with deer in front or behind. When she was clear, broadside, and here front legs were in the right place, I said "Now".
The shot rang out and I saw the bullet impact through my binos, low behind the on side leg as she quartered away from us. A perfect heart shot!!!
She lurched and turned to her left. I told him it was a perfect shot as she stumbled away. Falling is relative short order (I will pace it tomorrow). My boy had taken his 6th deer in two seasons. I am a proud dad!!!
My rancher friend was sitting behind us, watching it all happen. Like a proud grandpa.
I'll get the autopsy up soon.
We came out and zeroed some 95gr SST handloads I had as I wanted to use them up and test their terminal performance. Got them zeroed and headed out.
Poured out the corn along the ranch road past a feeder and set up next to an old rock wall with the Spec-Rest and .243 Winchester in a new MagPul Stock I had.
Of course, Precious (the tame doe raised from a fawn) had to come and check us out. preventing us from shooting the doe we were after for about 5 minutes until she moved out of the way.
Once she moved, I coached my boy through which deer we were after. Using a cow pie as a reference, I got him on the right one and he did a great job of tracking her as she moved through the mass of other deer. I told him to get on her and let me know when he was ready. He did and I watcher=d her walk around with deer in front or behind. When she was clear, broadside, and here front legs were in the right place, I said "Now".
The shot rang out and I saw the bullet impact through my binos, low behind the on side leg as she quartered away from us. A perfect heart shot!!!
She lurched and turned to her left. I told him it was a perfect shot as she stumbled away. Falling is relative short order (I will pace it tomorrow). My boy had taken his 6th deer in two seasons. I am a proud dad!!!
My rancher friend was sitting behind us, watching it all happen. Like a proud grandpa.
I'll get the autopsy up soon.
"To Hell with efficiency, it's performance we want!" - Elmer Keith
Replies
shake the young man's hand for me.
They kill deer. In case you were wondering. But, I have come to appreciate and enjoy the accuracy and damage caused by the A-Max and HPBT-GK. I did NOT experience the same level of damage with the SST.
Yes, it killed the deer and did ample damage to the internal organs as seen below.
Entrance at 73 yards.
Exit at 73 yards.
Entrance to rear lungs and heart.
Exit through front lung and heart.
Remainder of heart. (top/center)
I will pace off how far the deer ran tomorrow. I speculate it's around 50 yards give/take a little. What bothers me is that there was no blood to speak of on the ground. Yes.......looking hard.......there was some specks. Deer didn't live long. A matter of a hand full of seconds before she was down. In open country like it was........no issue. In thick brush, she would have been found........but it would have taken some work.
The 95gr SST is NOT a bad bullet!!!! I just appreciate the greater amount of damage and exit wound by the A-Max and Sierra than what I saw today. I am a realist. I know 1 result does not a pattern make. I will NOT bad mouth the SST from 1 experience. But, I do not have many of them and I know that I have a bunch of the others. I willnot be buying the SST in the future. Simple as that. It works from what I saw. I just prefer the others.
And..........I continue to be proud of my boy and his shooting ability. We still have work to do. But, that boy keeps smacking the deer and hitting them in the heart. Can't complain to date.
As for the lack of blood, that has usually been the case for me with heartshot deer, regardless of the bullet used. The least amount of blood I have ever found after a shot was a heart-shot blesbok in South Africa. The lower face of the heart was sheared off by a 140 gr. AccuBond, yet we found virtually no blood on the ground.
I understand the concept of a damaged heart not pumping and therefore little blood flowing. But, this was the least blood outside the body of any of his six heart shot deer. And the least internal damage of any of them as well. So, 1 out of 6 and its the odd bullet out.
On my deer, I want a softer bullet to do excessive amounts of damage. They ain't that big. So............I wanna blow crap up inside!!
As you see in the pictures, the only blood flow came from the entrance. Little to none from the exit.
I think it would be good for game with greater realestate to cover.
If you see the bolt in the first picture and how it is in the "UP" position. That is how I run my bolt guns. Three stages:
Chamber Empty / Bolt Down
Chamber Loaded / Bolt Up
Chamber Loaded / Bolt Down / Finger on Trigger Ready to Shoot
Safety is ALWAYS in the "Fire" position. Never in "Safe" Mode.
Use the bullets you have confidence in.
In any event.....well done!
Gun control laws make about as much sense as taking ex-lax to cure a cough.
Very good on the kiddo, and great story/ pics again as well. I'm taking my kid out for a hunt tomorrow.
-Mikhail Kalashnikov
I took the barreled action out of the stock as soon as I got home.
Anyone want a Magpul 700 Hunter stock with extras?
My .308 SST's have not performed well in my .300 BO, I thought, because they are traveling too slow. I have had two through and throughs. For what my opinion here is worth I think you are showing the same issue at 3000 FPS. I looked up .243, 95 gr loads in my Lee manual and it seems that bullet should have been traveling between 2900 and 3000 FPS.
In my opinion it should have:
1. Produced significant hydrostatic shock
2. Deformed and expanded
3. Created a larger exit wound
...etc.
So, I think SST's are going to leave my reloading stash. I am sure there are better applications for them since they have been pretty accurate for my use. Head shots come to mind, but for standard broadside target hunting applications I am going to stop using them.
Thanks for the great report!
D
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.... now who's bringing the hot wings? :jester:
AKA: Former Founding Member
I have a load for my .280 and a load for my 7 mag with that HPBT G.K. I haven't killed anything with it yet, but I'm about to try. We have 9 days of season left and I'm looking for another deer and carrying the 7 Mag with 160 Grain HPBT Sierra Game kings. If I connect with it I'll give a report.
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
I never find blood with any bullet. Hell, I'm color blind,:jester:
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
JAY
Please give that young man a high five for me, he made an excellent shot
I paced off off the distance from impact to fall. I guesstimated it at 37 yards yesterday. It paced out at 40 yards this even.
Quite different from the deer i shot this evening. But, that is for a different thread.
Dad 5-31-13
Got my own helmet and everything, I am mostly house broken and I only lick windows on a full moon.
Dad 5-31-13
Ha!
As to getting blood outside of the body for a trail. . .I think it's kind of a tough ask outside of the odd fluke. Bullets seem to do a wonderful job of tearing up the soft organs in the juicy center off the torso, but the outside of course is tough muscle covered with stretchy skin - almost a self-sealing fuel tank. The critter will obviously bleed out in a hurry, but gravity is going to keep it all inside the cavity you just created and away from the hole you just made. Sure, there's bigger, more explosive bullets, but then you've got meat damage & lack of penetration concerns (& if it doesn't exit, no blood trail). The perfect answer remains elusive. :uhm:
"Nothing is safe from stupid." - Zee